THE BARMY BEDFORD
Since the long gone days of the 18th Century, when hardy travellers would take their high priced seats in a post- chaise as they left Penzance heading for London and beyond, enterprising Inn Keepers offered overnight accommodation. A bed for the night, breakfast, and stabling for the horses. The 'hotel' concept was born.
Later, early in the age of the Great Western Railway, the creative genius, I K BRUNEL, declared a 'Trip Fortnight' for nearly all the Swindon workforce, thus stimulating creation and growth of holiday accommodation in small guest houses, Inns, pubs and small lineside hotels. Just have a look at Seaton Junction, Lyme Regis and Sidmouth today to see history laid out before you. You will find local examples anywhere where the rails meet, or did meet, the sea, or often a sizeable lake.
Well that's the background to this curious Review which I find it necessary, in the public interest, to write today.
Yesterday I tried to book into a 'reputable' 3* hotel online. My wife and I had an urgent family need of a two night stay in this hotel business in Tavistock, Devon.
Having tied up loose ends with the family, as best I could, I turned my attention to what I thought would be the quick and easy business of booking the hotel room online. I tried for twenty minutes, working around the many marketing 'tabs/buttons' on the website to book a double room for two nights. Impossible. All it needed was two 'boxes' ARRIVAL day and DEPARTURE day.
For 300 years it has been the core business plan for a 'hotel' to sell its rooms to customers and send them away planning to happily return in the future. Sadly this is not the case at The BEDFORD, Tavistock.
That's not quite the end of this tale of woe because I did give the old telephone idea a try. I waited for two minutes for the number to respond. Then a dusty, male voice, came through with a, 'do leave a message and we will get back to you.'
A little light at the end of tunnel now because about two hours later a charming lady rang me back and desperately tried to 'put things right'. Well by then I was well into my Victor Meldrew mode and I summed things up for her. She offered, 'You can speak to the manager if you like.' 'Thank you but no, I expect I will be able to communicate with him on Trustpilot tomorrow.'
This would be a 1* review but for the polite young lady mentioned and the fact that I have had many excellent 'bar snacks' here when passing through Tavistock; a good town but desperately in need of a railway connection to a city.
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Thank you for reading this and my thanks to Trust Pilot for this useful platform. If you found this review helpful and could spare a quick 'like' I would be grateful.